THE TOUR leaves from Yorkshire this year, with the first stage ending in Harrogate where the Manx rider's mother was born.

MARK CAVENDISH admits he’d make his mother proud if he left her home town with the yellow jersey tonight.

The 101st Tour de France will leave from Yorkshire this morning to start a 21-stage, 3664-kilometre route to Paris, with something like two million people set to line the streets of the opening trail.

It begins with a race from Leeds to Harrogate that could land Manx racer Cavendish the yellow jersey for the first time in his career.

Becoming the seventh Briton to lead the Tour – following Tom Simpson, Chris Boardman, Sean Yates, David Millar, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome – is a season goal for the 29-year-old.

He insisted his focus was on a successful Tour as a whole for his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team but knows he could do no better than making history in Harrogate in front of mum Adele.

Cavendish said: “To think the first stage is in Yorkshire and finishes in my mother’s home town is exciting. I remember being in Harrogate many summers. My grandparents and my uncle still live here and it’s nice to look around the places I knew when I was young.

“It would also be nice to wear the yellow jersey. I’ve not yet done that but it’s not a given – there’s 200 bike riders, almost, on the start line and every one of those wants it.

“The Tour de France is 21 days long, it doesn’t begin and end in Yorkshire, but we have an incredibly strong team and want to succeed.”

The second part of the Tour runs from York to Sheffield and the third from Cambridge to London before 18 more stages culminate in the French capital on July 27.

It’s the fourth time the Tour has crossed the Channel after fleeting visits in 1974 and 1994, with London hosting the Grand Depart in 2007.